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Complaints, compliments and comments

At Barnsley Council we're committed to putting our customers first. We want to know about your experience of our services.

Please tell us when you think we’ve done a good job and when you think that we can do better.

Your comments, complaints and compliments can help us to improve the services that we provide to all of our customers. You can read more about the feedback we received last year and how we're using it in our annual customer feedback report.

If you want to tell us something

We understand that sometimes you can be unhappy with something we have or have not done, and you just want us to deliver a service to you (such as empty your bin) or to tell us about something (such as where there’s a pothole). You don’t have to use our complaints procedure to do this - you can complete one of our online forms to tell us about:

What is a complaint?

A complaint is when you are unhappy with something that we may have done or said, the way that we may have acted, or with a decision we have made. When you make a complaint we would like you to work with us to help us look into what you think has gone wrong, why, and how we can learn from it.

When you make a complaint we will:

Always treat your complaint seriously and with great importance.

Always make contact with you. A member of our Customer Feedback and Improvement team will try to contact you within 3 working days (it sometimes may be a little longer, but we will always contact you).

Talk to you about it – what has happened, why it has made you unhappy and what you would like to see happen or changed as a result of your complaint.

Ask someone from the service to look into your concerns and provide you with a response.

We ask you to:

Take time to think about the complaint you wish to make and the outcome you would like. It might be helpful to make some notes about the key points you wish to raise and the examples you have to support what has happened.

Work with us to investigate your complaint. This may mean meeting with us, talking to us and sharing documents to support your complaint.

Make sure you tell us everything that you wish to make a complaint about. It may be too late to add more information after we have agreed your complaint with you.

Treat us with respect and dignity.

Customer complaints are really important to us and provide us with an opportunity to learn from and improve our services to you.

What is a compliment or comment?

A compliment is when you are happy with something that we may have done or said, the way that we have acted, or with a decision we have made. Your compliments will be shared with the service, and if it is about a person we will ask their Manager to let them know. We will always try to contact you to thank you for the compliment you have made.

A comment is a suggestion or an idea that you have had about our services. Your comment will be shared with the service and we will ask someone to provide you with a response within 10 working days.

How to make a complaint or a compliment

If you have a complaint or a suggestion it’s often easier to sort it out by talking to somebody in the service first. If you’ve done this already, and are still not happy, you can ask us to look into the matter in more detail and give you a written response.

Other ways to contact us

writing to us at Customer Services Feedback and Improvement Team, PO Box 634, Barnsley, S70 9GG - please mark your envelope TO BE OPENED BY ADDRESSEE ONLY

What happens next

You can expect us to acknowledge your complaint or comment within 3 working days (it sometimes may be a little longer, but we will always contact you), either by telephone, email or letter. We’ll tell you how we are going to look into your concerns and what will happen next.

Sometimes not all contacts we receive are complaints, comments or compliments and we're unable to treat them as this. Where this is the case we will always tell you and if you don’t agree with us, please contact the customer feedback and improvement team and let us know.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

If you aren’t happy with how we’ve dealt with your complaint, you have the right to ask the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to look into the matter for you.